Table of Contents

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Justice in the Delivery of Government Services [United States]: Decision Norms of Street-Level Bureaucrats in Select Southwest and Midwest U.S. Cities, 1996-1999 (ICPSR 3324)

Principal Investigator(s):Maynard-Moody, Steven, University of Kansas. Policy Research Institute and Department of Public Administration; Musheno, Michael, Arizona State University. School for Justice Studies

Summary:

This study examined the various factors involved in the
decision norms of street-level bureaucrats. The principal
investigators explored how police officers, school teachers, and
vocational rehabilitation counselors decided what was fair and right
in individual cases and how this assessment affected the delivery of
governmental services. The data in this collection consist of
street-level work stories or narratives, semi-structured entry and
exit interviews, and a structured questionnaire... (more info)

This study examined the various factors involved in the
decision norms of street-level bureaucrats. The principal
investigators explored how police officers, school teachers, and
vocational rehabilitation counselors decided what was fair and right
in individual cases and how this assessment affected the delivery of
governmental services. The data in this collection consist of
street-level work stories or narratives, semi-structured entry and
exit interviews, and a structured questionnaire. Participants from the
aforementioned job categories were drawn from select southwest and
midwest United States cities over a period of three years (1996-1999).
Part 1 includes the quantitative data from the structured questionnaire.
Part 2 includes transcripts of the narratives and interviews. The
entry interview was designed to gather background information on the
participants and to explain and schedule the story collection process.
Participants were queried about their work history, current job, and
relations with citizen-clients, coworkers, and supervisors. They were
asked to describe their various personal, professional, and group
identities and how their social identities related to those of the
citizens with whom they interacted. They were also asked to describe
any critical incidents in the history of their agency, such as a
public scandal or change of administration, that influenced their work
environment. At the conclusion of the entry interview, the
participants were given instructions and materials for the narratives.
The participants were asked to write down a rough outline of two or
three different stories describing situations that took place within
their agency. These stories were to focus on instances when the
participants' perception of "fairness or unfairness" impacted their
decision-making in encounters with citizen-clients or with the
agency. The narratives were collected during a scheduled meeting
between the researcher and participant. The researcher asked the
participant to tell his or her stories, which were tape-recorded.
During the initial storytelling, the researchers interrupted as little
as possible, asking questions at the conclusion to encourage the story
teller to fill in missing or unelaborated details. The tape-recorded
stories were transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were lightly
edited for clarity and to introduce the observations added in response
to researcher probes. The exit interview involved a structured
questionnaire and a brief open-ended interview. The questionnaire
data were not intended to allow for statistical inference but to
describe the participants. The questionnaire asked direct questions
about discretion and justice as well as a series of standard
questions on task authority, task variety, the frequency of work
expectations, the applicability and clarity of rules, and the
percentage of time spent working directly with citizen-clients.
Participants were queried about the adequacy of resources, work load,
job satisfaction, and perceptions of fairness at work. They were also
asked questions on ideology and political orientation, as well as
hypothetical questions regarding the distribution of rules. The exit
interview involved three open-ended questions: What the word
"justice" meant to participants, whether participants felt there
were groups in America that were treated unfairly, and if any of the
rules or procedures at work struck participants as unfair.

To protect respondent privacy, Part 2 (Qualitative Interview and Narrative Data) is restricted from general dissemination. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete an Agreement for the Use of Confidential Data, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research. Apply for access to these data through the ICPSR Restricted Data Contract Portal, which can be accessed via the study home page.

Study Description

Citation

Maynard-Moody, Steven, and Michael Musheno. Justice in the Delivery of Government Services [United States]: Decision Norms of Street-Level Bureaucrats in Select Southwest and Midwest U.S. Cities, 1996-1999. ICPSR03324-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03324.v1

Universe:
Street-level bureaucrats in select southwest and midwest
United States cities.

Data Types:
survey data, and machine-readable text

Data Collection Notes:

The codebook for Part 1 and the qualitative interview
data (Part 2) are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF)
files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Methodology

Sample:
Nonrandom, stratified purposeful sample, consisting of
three different types of street-level bureaucrats: police officers,
vocational rehabilitation counselors, and middle school teachers
distributed across five sites in two states. Forty-eight participants
were drawn from select southwest and midwest United States cities over
a period of three years (1996-1999).

Data Source:

personal interviews and self-enumerated questionnaires

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2005-01-27

Version History:

2006-01-18 File CB3324.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.